Rep. Dave Min Speaks Out Against Economic Toll of Trump’s Tariffs

Washington, D.C. - Today, Representative Dave Min (CA-47), along with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) slammed the devastating impacts of President Trump's tariffs on Asian American businesses and communities across the country.

Since Donald Trump implemented his sweeping tariffs, the American economy has been in chaos, creating uncertainty for small businesses and consumers, including for Asian American businesses that rely heavily on imported goods that cannot be imported domestically.

"We know what tariffs are doing to our economy here in the United States. They are raising costs on everything. And that includes in my district, where I have spent the last few months trying to visit local businesses, talking to my constituents. And we've heard the same stories we hear from around the country: consumers are facing higher prices. But it's also impacting jobs right now. The tariffs are destroying the jobs that we create in this country," said Rep. Min.

Watch Rep. Min's remarks here.

Rep. Min's full remarks are below:

"I'm Congressman Dave Min, and before entering into elected office, I was a law and economics professor. And I want to just make a couple of things clear here.

First, when we talk about tariffs, they are taxes. Tariffs are a regressive tax that go on imported goods, raising the cost for average people out there on the goods, including all these products you see in front of you that they see. There's a reason we're seeing much higher prices at the stores: because that's what tariffs do. They raise the cost of our goods. And anyone telling you otherwise is trying to gaslight you.

The second legal point I want to make is that these tariffs are completely illegal - that Congress, and only Congress, has the power to levy new taxes. And what Donald Trump has done is he has completely mischaracterized the 1977 law, the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, claiming that there's an emergency to justify the imposition of tariffs across the board on every country that we do trade with. There is no emergency, other than the economic crisis being created right now by Donald Trump's poorly thought-out policies.

And you don't just have to take my word for that. Listen to every economist out there back in 2024. Today, they all said the same thing: that tariffs of this level would be disastrous for our economy. In fact, the last time we had tariffs this high was in the 1920s. And as we know, those tariffs caused - or contributed greatly to - the Great Depression that we experienced back then. And right now, we're on track for something similar. We can see the signs: rising inflation, perhaps double-digit very soon. A massive loss in jobs, to the point where Donald Trump fired his director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he didn't like the reports they're producing. So now we don't have reliable data we can trust. But we know what tariffs are doing to our economy here in the United States. They are raising costs on everything. And that includes in my district, where I have spent the last few months trying to visit local businesses, talking to my constituents. And we've heard the same stories we hear from around the country: consumers are facing higher prices. But it's also impacting jobs right now. The tariffs are destroying the jobs that we create in this country.

As one example, I have a local electronics manufacturer in my district, and they were explaining that because of the way that the supply chain works today, they will import goods - say, from Korea or China or Vietnam or Canada - then they will improve them, send them off to somewhere else, they get improved in another country, [then] come back to the United States. This might happen 3 or 4 times with a particular product, and every time it crosses a border, another tariff is imposed, creating massive, massive aggregate effects on their prices and their cost of goods that they're trying to sell.

And what he was telling me is that he would have to lay off workers or consider moving his entire operation out of Irvine, in my district, into another area - maybe another country like Canada or Mexico - because it was cheaper just manufacturing one time in another country and not having those aggregate tariffs add up, than to have it in the United States with these chaotic and poorly thought-out policies.

At the same time, I talked to a general contractor who told me - because they take bids from subcontractors - that they were seeing their orders drop off to zero because no customers wanted to agree to pay for a project: a housing project, a commercial real estate project, something like that, that might happen in six months or a year - not knowing what the input costs are going to be at that point. The uncertainty of the wanton ways in which Donald Trump is imposing these tariffs is creating mass uncertainty right now. And so it's not only just driving up our costs a ton - it is so devastating to jobs in this country.

And I would just close with this. Jill talked about the raid on the LG Hyundai plant in Georgia. But if these guys were actually serious about trying to bring manufacturing back to the United States - which is a goal I think many of us share; we want to see more manufacturing done here in the United States - why are they raiding a plant and making a public spectacle out of handcuffing and shackling Korean workers who are there to train up and start the plant that is going to employ thousands of Americans?

This is not an administration that cares about manufacturing. They're not an administration that cares about thoughtful and good economic policy. This is an administration right now that is being driven by xenophobia and, yes, racism. And I'm proud to be part of CAPAC as we stand up to these policies, stand up for our constituents."

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